August and September are full of birthdays in our family. This weekend, Mom had her birthday on Saturday. So the puppies had a very full day. We took them for a walk in the morning so that they got their exercise. Then we bathed them and took them with us to Grandma and Grandpa's house. The puppies immediately offered their bottle crushing services.

Mr. C taking his bottle crushing duties very seriously.

Grandma was cooking, and occasionally Grandpa would go into the kitchen too. The boys decided that it would be best to stick around the kitchen so that they could help in case anything fell on the floor. They love helping in the kitchen.

Mr. M guarding the kitchen, waiting for food to trickle down

The puppies love Grandma and Grandpa's fridge. It is very puppy friendly with side by side fridge and freezer sections. At the moment, with Blue Bell back in stores, there is even ice cream right at nose level. Mr. C took the opportunity to conveniently smell the ice cream while pretending to be interested in ice cubes.

Sunday, the puppies got to help Dad pull up weeds in the yard.

The puppies on gardening duty

Miss M just had one question. With all of these birthdays going on, where was the cake? She didn't believe us when we told her she couldn't have any cake. She was absolutely convinced that they needed cake too. We gave them puppy treats instead.

I've come to the conclusion that the dogs love digging at the beach so much because they can actually dig in the sand. The dirt in our yard is, for lack of a nicer word, special. It has a high clay content and when it is wet, it sticks to everything. I have literally had to throw shoes away because I walked in the yard when it was wet and couldn't get the inches thick caked on mud off again. When it is dry, it is like concrete. Maybe I should just let the dogs dig all they want. Then their nails would be filed down naturally and I wouldn't have to clip them...In the summer time, our soil shrinks as it dries up and big cracks form. It hasn't rained in a week or two, and our yard already looks like this:

The dirt at the base of our grapefruit tree

I can't really say that I'm looking forward to summer if the yard is already starting to crack...

So today, to change things up, we worked a little in the yard instead of going to the beach. We are trying to get our raised beds ready for the spring garden. The puppies think the raised beds are their own personal sand boxes and are always eager to help pull out weeds (and any other plant that happens to be growing there already).

Mr. M helping

Miss B decided that gardening was boring and convinced everyone else that they should play with her instead. Of course, it doesn't take much to convince our puppies to run around the yard at top speed.

The boys racing through the yard

A brief pause to catch their breath

Not everyone was happy with the decision to play outside.

Ok. I'll just wait here in the toy box. All by myself. Nobody paying attention to me anymore... Guys?